The new restaurant at Airside is part of a €20 million investment programme from the company which is beefing up its Ireland operations by opening a dozen new branches nationwide and creating 700 jobs. The Minister of State for Small Business at the Department of Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation, John Perry, officially opened the latest McDonald's restaurant in Airside, Swords last week and its 82 new jobs brings the nationwide workforce of the company to more than 4,000. Speaking at the opening, Minister Perry said: ' This announcement by McDonald's Ireland is very positive news. 'McDonald's is not only directly creating a very significant number of jobs in the food service industry, it is also helping to secure jobs and create employment indirectly, through the Irish goods and services it purchases for domestic use and for export. 'Many of McDonald's restaurants are operated by franchisees who are small business owners and who, working with McDonald's, have developed successful business while creating jobs in their communities across the country. ' The McDonald's model offering local business people the opportunity to run their own business as franchisees has been very successful over the last 35 years.' At the launch of the Swords restaurant, McDonald's also announced details of an economic analysis prepared by Indecon International Economic Consultants. McDonald's overall expenditure in the Irish economy on food, restaurants and labour costs amounts to €283.7 million in 2011. The company facilitated significant exports of Irish-origin food produce to McDonald's international operations in 2011, including more than €110 million of Irish beef and €66 million of Irish cheese. Adrian Crean, Managing Director of McDonald's Ireland said: ' This investment in our Irish operations in our 35th year of doing business here in Ireland highlights the strength of our business. We take pride in our consistent creation of quality jobs with the associated economic multiplier effect, throughout a difficult economic period. ' He added: ' The Indecon report highlights the contribution made by our business to the wider Irish economy, through the purchase of Irish goods, services and expenditure on labour. We are also delighted to be able to facilitate high volumes of quality Irish produce to our international markets and we expect that our recent deal with Dawn Meats will provide further impetus to beef exports in particular, in the future.' There are now 83 McDonald's restaurants in operation nationwide. McDonald's Ireland recently reported system wide sales of €209 million in 2011, up 3.3 per cent on 2010. McDonald's Europe is the single largest purchaser of Irish beef by volume and one in every five hamburgers sold in McDonald's across Europe every year is of Irish origin.